Representing York College of Pennsylvania, six students were acknowledged for their work on their senior capstone project on transmitting radio signals over FM frequency.
On October 8, 2026, the IEEE Susquehanna Section held its sixth Annual Section-Wide Capstone Award Ceremony at York College of Pennsylvania. This year, York College and Penn State Harrisburg tied for first place among submissions from the six participating universities within the section. Six York College students were involved with the capstone project: Andy Chinchilla, Korbin Dick, Robert Nash, Anthony Ramos, Dominick Weaver, and Brooke Zajac.
The annual Capstone Award competition is one of the IEEE Susquehanna Section’s premier events for engaging and recognizing engineering students in the region. Each participating university submits its top senior capstone project for evaluation by a panel of judges. Projects are assessed using detailed scoring criteria that include technical achievement, project scope, technical content, innovation, and relevance to IEEE fields.
York College of Pennsylvania earned joint first place for its Software Defined Radio (SDR) capstone project. The team developed a communication link between two systems using software-based modulation and encoding techniques for data transmission and reception. The project involved integrating analog and digital modulation techniques to transmit signals over the FM frequency band at 100 MHz.
Both subsystems use digital signal processing to sample and encode or decode audio signals. The transmitter digitally synthesizes frequency-shift keying (FSK) tones at baseband frequencies of 4.8 kHz and 9.6 kHz. The resulting baseband waveform is then upconverted using a 100 MHz carrier signal for over-the-air transmission. Both subsystems also integrate traditional analog hardware to filter, amplify, and attenuate audio signals as needed.
Dr. Mahmudur Khan, faculty advisor for the capstone project and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, expressed his pride in the students for their incredible accomplishment, which drew on the knowledge they gained during their time at York College.
“The hard work and dedication of the Software Defined Radio team earned them recognition as joint winners of the IEEE Susquehanna Section Capstone Award,” Dr. Khan said. “This achievement reflects the students' ability to apply their engineering knowledge while developing new skills in radio frequency (RF) communications, signal processing, and embedded system design through a challenging, real-world project. I hope the students take away greater confidence in their problem-solving abilities, an appreciation for the importance of teamwork and perseverance, and the satisfaction of seeing their ideas come to life.”
Please join us in congratulating the student team and their project advisors, Dr. Khan and Mr. Ed Petruzzelli, on this outstanding achievement. Their success reflects the technical excellence, creativity, and hands-on learning demonstrated by York College of Pennsylvania’s engineering students.
